Overview

Sinophone Australia opens a new window onto Australian history by foregrounding Chinese-language sources as a lens through which to reinterpret the nation's past. Understanding Australian history through sources written in a different language offers a familiar yet fundamentally different perspective on the Australian experience. This groundbreaking volume brings together a rich collection of primary sources letters, essays, travelogues written in Chinese and now translated into English, spanning from the gold rush era of the 1850s to the postwar reflections of the 1950s. Each chapter includes primary sources translated into English and preceded by an academic introduction written by a historian who has engaged with these sources. In this respect, Sinophone Australia revises the Anglo-hegemony of historical writing, providing glimpses of non-English historical documents with the hopes that this will lead to the expansion of Australian history, just as a new multilingual generation of historians stands up to interpret the vast amount of source documents written in other languages. Beyond its contribution to Australian history, Sinophone Australia positions these narratives within the broader framework of the global Sinophone, addressing themes that resonate across settler colonies and Chinese-speaking communities worldwide. Sharing analysis from historians who have extensive experience working with Chinese-language sources on Australian history, Sinophone Australia invites scholars and readers to reconsider the intersections of language, migration and identity in shaping historical knowledge.

Full Product Details

Author:   Craig A. Smith
Publisher:   Sydney University Press
Imprint:   Sydney University Press
Weight:   0.450kg
ISBN:  

9781761540653

ISBN 10:   1761540653
Pages:   300
Publication Date:   01 May 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

List of figures Introduction: A multilingual people and a monolingual state by Craig A. Smith Bespattered with Chinese hieroglyphics: Rewriting Chinese into nineteenth-century Australia by Ely Finch and Michael William The dynamics of publishing Chinese-language newspapers in White Australia by Mei-fen Kuo Liang Qichao’s visit to Australia by Sophie Loy-Wilson Sinophone writings on Indigenous Australians by Austin Tseng The Sino-Japanese War in Sydney’s Sinophone theatre and literature, 1943 by Chao Guo and Josh Stenberg The traveller: Elite voyages to Australia by Craig A. Smith Narratives of Chinese Australian history: Taam Sze Pui and Liu Wei-ping, 1925 and 1956 by Craig A. Smith Dismantling the White Australia Policy by Craig A. Smith Conclusion by Sophie Loy-Wilson Bibliography Glossary and index

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Author Information

Craig A. Smith is Associate Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. He is a historian of modern East Asia and an avid translator. He is the author of Chinese Asianism (Harvard University Asia Center, 2021) and the co-editor of Translating the Occupation (University of British Columbia Press, 2021).

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